North and South Korea to Start Removing Landmines along the Fortified Border

The South defense ministry has stated that Troops from South and North Koreas have started removing some landmines along the heavily fortified border this Monday. It is a part of the pact to truncate the tension and work on the trust on the divided peninsula. The project details had been agreed upon in the summit in the capital of North Korea, Pyongyang just last month in between its leader Kim Jong Un and Moon Jae-in, the South Korean President.

In their statement, the defense ministry stated that they had agreed upon to get rid of the landmines in JSA or Joint Security Area in Panmunjom in the next twenty days with the help of the military engineers who were performing some dangerous task on the side of South Korea. However, there hasn’t been an immediate confirmation from North Korea that the troops have started with the process.

The deal also includes the removal of weapons and guard posts from JSA for following the removal of the mines and the troops are going to be left their unarmed. JSA is the only spot along the 250 long demilitarized zones where you are going to find forces from both Korea face to face along with the troops from United Nations.

In the month of November, 2017, the North Korean troops at JSA shot one of the soldier which defected to the South Korea for about five times. It is since then that this has turned out to be the scene of first summit of April in between Moon and Kim and also their low-key meeting on the month of May. At the April summit, both Koreans announced their intention to turn DMZ which is a long symbol of division and tension into a peace zone. They already have some guard posts and dismantled propaganda loudspeakers along the border.